Part II, Chapter III, Section 2, Article 2: The Angels in Their Relation to Men, or the Guardian Angels

Pohle, God the Author of Nature and the Supernatural, Part II, Chapter III, §2, Article 2 (pp. 330–339)

The Catholic Church teaches that every man has a Guardian Angel, whom he should venerate and invoke. This teaching is founded on Sacred Scripture.¹

The mission of the Guardian Angels may be briefly described as follows: They ward off dangers from body and soul, they inspire good and salutary thoughts, they convey our prayers to the throne of grace, they assist us in the hour of death and bear the souls of the elect to Heaven.² The Catholic teaching on the subject may be formulated in four theses.

Thesis I: The Angels exercise a kind of general guardianship over the human race.

Proof. Though we can adduce no express dogmatic definition in support of this thesis, it must be accepted as an article of faith, because it is taught by the magisterium ordinarium of the Church, which, in its turn, voices the manifest teaching of Scripture and Tradition. St. Paul lays it down as an indisputable axiom that the Angels minister to those who “shall receive the inheritance of salvation.” Heb. I, 14: “Nonne omnes sunt administratorii spiritus³ in ministerium missi propter eos, qui haereditatem capient salutis?” — Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation? The Psalmist touchingly describes the tender care which the Angels bestow upon man. Ps. XC, 11 sq.: “Angelis suis mandavit de te, ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis; in manibus portabunt te, ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum” — He hath given his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. The lives of Tobias and of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself prove how faithfully the Guardian Angels perform their duty.

This doctrine was part of the Apostolic Tradition, as is clearly evidenced by the following passage from Origen: “This too is contained in the ecclesiastical teaching, that there are Angels of God and good powers who serve Him for the purpose of consummating the salvation of men.”⁴

Since this angelic guardianship is based upon a divine mission,⁵ the question has been broached whether such missions are limited to the lower choirs, or whether members of the higher choirs too are sometimes sent down from Heaven. There are two theological opinions on this subject. One, based on the writings of the Pseudo-Areopagite, and espoused by SS. Gregory the Great, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas, holds that only the lowest three, or at the most five of the lower choirs discharge the office of messengers, while the Seraphim, the Cherubim, the Thrones, and the Dominations are constantly assembled around the throne of the Most High. Since, however, theologians have begun to emancipate themselves from the authority, once all too highly regarded, of the Pseudo-Areopagite, the opinion of Scotus and his school has become the more common one, to wit, that all Angels without exception are employed as divine messengers. There are two very good reasons for adopting this view. The first is the authority of St. Paul, who emphatically teaches that all spirits are “sent.”⁶ The second is the fact that Angels of the highest rank have been commissioned to execute divine commands, as, e.g., the Seraph in Isaias VI, 6 sqq., and the two Cherubim “placed before the paradise of pleasure,” Gen. III, 24.⁷

Thesis II: Every Christian from the moment of Baptism has his particular Guardian Angel.

Proof. Suarez says of this thesis: “Though not expressly contained in Holy Writ, nor yet formally defined, it is received by universal consent in the Church and has such a solid foundation in Scripture, as interpreted by the Fathers, that it cannot be denied without very great temerity and even error.”⁸ The Biblical basis of this doctrine is our Saviour’s own declaration: “Videte, ne contemnatis unum ex his pusillis; dico enim vobis, quia angeli eorum⁹ in coelis semper vident faciem Patris mei” — See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.¹⁰ The expression “their angels” (i.e., the angels of these little children), plainly points to the existence of Guardian Angels (angeli custodes seu tutelares, ἄγγελοι φύλακες). That each man has a Guardian Angel is also proved by a passage in the Acts of the Apostles. The friends of St. Peter, when he knocks at the door after his deliverance from prison, joyfully exclaim: “It is his angel.”¹¹ The objection that the Saviour’s words apply exclusively to the children of the Jews, is invalid. For, in the first place, all the supernatural prerogatives of the Synagogue descended in an enhanced degree upon the Christian Church; and, secondly, the Fathers in their interpretation of this and similar passages nowhere make a distinction between Jews and Christians, or between the Old and the New Testament. St. Basil declares: “That each one among the faithful¹² has an angel, who directs his life as a guide¹³ and shepherd,¹⁴ nobody can deny who remembers the words of our Lord: ‘See that you despise not one of these little ones.’”¹⁵ Commenting on this same dictum of our Divine Saviour, St. Chrysostom writes: “Each faithful Christian has an Angel; for every righteous man had an Angel from the very beginning, as Jacob says:¹⁶ The Angel that nourisheth and delivereth me from youth.”¹⁷ Origen undoubtedly voices the belief of the Primitive Church when he says: “Each of us, even the lowliest, has an Angel by his side.”¹⁸

The faith of the early Christians manifested itself unmistakably in the devotion they paid to the Guardian Angels. As early as the fourth century it was customary to erect altars and sanctuaries in their honor. The Feast of the Guardian Angels originated in the eleventh century. “Though of comparatively recent introduction, [it] gives the sanction of the Church’s authority to an ancient and cherished belief.”¹⁹

Some of the early Fathers and ecclesiastical writers held that besides his Guardian Angel every Christian has also a demon to tempt him.²⁰ Bellarmine rightly reckoned this belief, which has absolutely no Scriptural foundation whatever, among the errors of Hermas. That every man should be afflicted with an imp to plague him, is a notion which can hardly be reconciled with belief in a benevolent Providence. Perhaps Hermas was led to adopt it in a well-meant endeavor to Christianize the pagan idea of a genius niger as a counterpart to the genius albus.

Some modern writers on the philosophy of religion maintain that Jewish and Christian angelology was borrowed from the pagan religions of the East, and that in the last analysis the Angels are merely personifications of Divine Providence. Not to speak of the extreme antiquity of the Jewish belief in Angels,²¹ this theory is disproved by the teaching and conduct of Christ Himself, and also by the sharp contrast existing between the Angels of the Bible and the figments of pagan mythology.

Thesis III: Not only Christians and those justified, but heathens and sinners also have each a Guardian Angel.

Proof. Suarez refers to this proposition as embodying “the common teaching of theologians and Fathers.”²² Its meaning is that every man has a Guardian Angel in as far as he is a man, not in consequence of Baptism or justification. This angelic guardianship begins at birth. “Magna dignitas animarum,” says St. Jerome, “ut unaquaeque habeat ab ortu nativitatis in custodiam sui angelum delegatum.”²³ Theodoret and Isidore of Sevilla base this belief on Christ’s dictum concerning little children, which we have quoted above.²⁴ Quite a number of the Fathers, it is true, speak of Guardian Angels only in connection with pious Christians; but their utterances must not be interpreted in an exclusive sense; these Fathers merely wish to emphasize that every good Christian enjoys the special protection of a Guardian Angel, which does not exclude that God bestows the same paternal providence also upon the heathen and the sinner.

The attitude of the Schoolmen on this question was governed by the declaration of St. Anselm, that “every soul is committed to an Angel at the moment when it is united with the body.”²⁵ St. Thomas, proceeding from the principle that “the guardianship of the Angels over men is as it were the carrying into effect of divine Providence,”²⁶ argues as follows: “Beneficia, quae dantur divinitus, ex eo quod est Christianus, incipiunt a tempore baptismi, sicut perceptio Eucharistiae, et alia huiusmodi. Sed ea quae providentur homini a Deo, in quantum habet naturam rationalem, ex tunc ei exhibentur, ex quo nascendo talem naturam accipit; et tale beneficium est custodia angelorum. … Unde statim a nativitate habet homo angelum ad sui custodiam deputatum.”²⁷ Socrates’s assertion that he enjoyed the guidance of a tutelary spirit (δαιμόνιον) expresses a profound truth.²⁸

Thesis IV: Every State and every ecclesiastical province has its own divinely appointed tutelary spirit.

Proof. This thesis, which embodies merely a probable opinion, finds some slight support in the famous vision of Daniel,²⁹ where the Archangel Michael battles side by side with Raphael as princeps Iudaeorum, for the Israelites against two other Angels, who are called princes of the Persians and the Greeks. Of the four Angels engaged in this conflict three are expressly designated as “princes” of certain nations or States. We must refer the reader to St. Thomas for an explanation as to how Angels can battle with one another on behalf of their clients.³⁰ St. Basil commenting on the vision of Daniel says: “That there are certain Angels who are placed at the head of entire nations, … is a fact which the wise Daniel heard from the Angel [Raphael], who spoke to him thus: The prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me, and behold Michael came to help me.”³¹ Some of the Fathers think that the “man of Macedonia” who appeared to St. Paul in a vision and besought him to “pass over into Macedonia, and help us,”³² was the tutelary Angel of the Macedonians.³³

St. Michael, who is called “the Prince of Guardian Angels,” was regarded as the tutelary spirit of the Jewish Synagogue; in the New Testament he is venerated as the special protector of the Catholic Church.³⁴

Certain Scriptural expressions³⁵ permit us to infer that churches, cities, and ecclesiastical provinces likewise have special tutelary spirits.³⁶

That we owe a duty of reverence to our Guardian Angel is taught by St. Bernard in these words: “In quovis diversorio, in quovis angulo, angelo tuo reverentiam habe.”³⁷

Notes

Readings

Trombelli, Trattato degli Angeli Custodi, Bologna 1747. Berlage, Dogmatik, Vol. IV, §§ 26 sqq. De la Gerda, De Angelo Custode. Albert. a Bulsano, Theol. Dogmat., t. I, pp. 321 sqq., Oeniponte 1893. Chardon, L’Ange et le Prêtre, Paris 1899. S. Hunter, Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, Vol. II, 2nd ed., pp. 298 sqq. R. O’Kennedy, The Holy Angels, pp. 99–119, London 1887. C. Gutberlet, Gott und die Schöpfung, pp. 441 sqq., Ratisbon 1910. H. Pope, art. “Guardian Angels” in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VII. K. Pelz, Die Engellehre des hl. Augustinus, Münster 1913.

Note on this transcription: several short Greek terms (λειτουργικὰ πνεύματα, ἄγγελος/ἀγγέλλειν, ἄγγελοι φύλακες, τῶν πιστῶν, παιδαγωγός, νομεύς, δαιμόνιον, and the Shepherd of Hermas couplet on the two angels) were reconstructed from garbled OCR with good confidence given the Latin/English context alongside each. This article was otherwise textually clean.

This completes Section 2 (“The Angels and the Supernatural Order”). Section 3, “The Apostasy of a Number of the Angels” — the book’s final section — follows next.